About Me — Wayne A. Boatwright
To create in any form takes courage, I have found mine through the chrysalis of prison.
What other people take for granted I refuse to know for certain.
Curiosity brought you to this post, welcome. Before I share the scope and timbre of my writings, let me share a few adventures I’ve experienced as these may pique your interest to read on and sample my writings….
I have:
- Walked the Great Wall of China at restricted Simatai and been to a private party in the Forbidden City.
- Cast evil spirits out of a girl in a mud hut on Las Pampas of Argentina.
- After dying my hair black, three rounds of makeup, and a Nehru jacket, snuck onto an Indian Military base for a friend’s wedding in Mumbai.
- Friends, Chris Cosentino and Gary Danko, have delivered meals to my apartment on Nob Hill (I’ll be enjoying Danko’s Thanksgiving feast alone this year).
- Gotten engaged on the penthouse rooftop of a highrise in Hong Kong’s mid-levels during the 1997 Handover to the PRC.
- Served a six-year stint on the Main Line of San Quentin and became the managing editor of the San Quentin News.
- On a day that had me ‘throat-punched’ (a killing hit) and a murder (in another prison block) at San Quentin, I gave a video presentation on overcoming math phobia at San Quentin’s inaugural academic conference held in October 2018.
Born to an age of adventure in the physical world (see more of my ‘adventures’ at the bottom), I now write of my adventures in the psychic realm.
Free of the twin distractions of mobility and being ‘connected,’ to the ALL-THING of a smartphone at San Quentin, I spent a fair amount of time THINKING. Yes, I studied too — ranging from ancient Greeks and Enlightenment philosophers to recent neuro-psychological research. This study provided me with jargon to reveal my inner world and how I see our modern society. To share these psychic insights, however, is most challenging. You see, I refuse to know for certain what others take for granted. To my surprise, the world is a much different place than I once thought. New mental constructs are both difficult to formulate and consume. The time it takes to ‘set the table’ with context bores people and you lose their attention. Still, my Medium Posts are an attempt to do just that (see topics below).
We each inhabit a story, describing where we are, where we are going, and the actions we must undertake to get from the former to the latter. These inhabited stories are predicated on an underlying value system (as we must want to be where we are going more than we value where we are). In addition, they are frames of reference, allowing us to perceive … and determine emotional significance. Jordan Peterson
PRISON
- PRISON PATOIS: Jargon intended to save time and conceal meaning from Correctional Officers (COs) or convey dense information
- My Time in Prison and What I Learned There
- THE CIRCLE: Explaining my crime and recovery
- THE ART OF DEALING
- CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN SIX BOOKS: Big Data Revolution
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
- SUNSHINE is COVID-19’s Surprise Prophylactic/Therapeutic: Vitamin D Works
- COVID-19 Pandemic Death-Spiral Needs a Unified Field Solution (Published in An Idea)
- FLATTEN THE CURVE (a COVID-19 Pandemic Story) Prison Predicts the Future (published March 2, 2020, in Age of Awareness)
- COVID-19 Symptom Study
FAMILY
- Caspar: Returning Home (my last weekend with my family before prison — chosen for further distribution)
- A Father and Son’s Game of Catch Before, During and After Prison
A simple game holds powerful truths about family. - WHY DADDY? (explaining my alcoholism to my daughter)
- 500 Pounds of Happiness (the power of a child’s magic — chosen for further distribution)
- AUTO: (How one simple word changed my life)
PERSONAL JOURNEY TO DISCOVER SELF
- THE FIRE: How I destroyed my psychic delusion house by a crime
- THE GARDEN: Of my mind
- HOME DESIGN: Rebuilding after the (psychic) FIRE
- LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF
FAILING CULTURAL NARRATIVE
- A Theater of Envy (published in Common Sense Now)
- ART OF MEASUREMENT: How Playing Sudoku Can Teach Math and Bridge the Digital Divide
- Inequality Discussion Tool-kit (Published in Age of Awareness)
- Valence-charged Facts: the hidden force shaping our new post-rational era
POLITICS
- TALK IS CHEAP: A Toolbox for Dialogue
- CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN SIX BOOKS: Big Data Revolution
- HARD CHOICES: Immigration in America
- Iran Blinks, Deterrence Restored
I have (continued):
- Taken my love to an abandoned Angkor Wat at the end of a civil war and seen the temples in solitude with only a guide.
- Partied with Stevie Wonder and appeared in a Cass Beer ad in Seoul Korea while living as an ex-pat for six years.
- Explored Kyoto’s gardens at dawn.
- Danced all night in bodypaint at Koh Phi Phi’s Full Moon Party.
- Taken a 737 full of friends to Marfa Texas celebrate a friend’s 40th at the Judd Foundation.
- Spent two hours with Dave Mason on his tour bus trading stories of world travel, his fifty years on the road, and his best friend, Jimi Hendrix.
- While born in obscurity to a single mother in HUD rent-control housing, still graduated from Cornell Law School and pass the California Bar on the first attempt.
Free of the twin distractions of mobility and community, I spent my time pondering deep concepts — one was survival on the Main Line in an infamously famous and brutal prison, San Quentin.
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